By Vera Samuel Anyagafu and Mark Akpa Jnr.(Beijing)
Nigerian businessmen in China are bitter over the  absence of a  consulate in Guangzhou, the commercial nerve centre of China, mostly populated by Africans.

In a telephone conversation, the coordinator of Good Governance Initiatives, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu, spokesperson for Nigerian businessmen in Guangzhou, revealed that Nigerians in China  had pleaded with the Senate Committee on Diaspora Affairs and the Federal Government to build a consulate in Guangzhou.
“Opening a consulate in Guangzhou is a matter of urgency now, and I implore the Federal Government to intervene,”Mbisiogu said.

“Let us put politics and ethnic sentiments aside, I do not need to tell you what Nigerian government is losing by neglecting Nigerians in Guangzhou and situating a consulate here. Aside the economic importance of this city, many of China’s manufacturing base and the kind of investors Nigerian government are always shopping for are based in south China city of Guangdong.”

He further stated that the Chinese in Nigeria have the embassy in Abuja and a consulate in Lagos, because they do not underestimate the importance of Lagos commercial linkage.
“Without a Nigerian consulate operating here in the city of Guangzhou to see to the affairs of Nigerians on the spot, I am afraid the Chinese government will continue to heighten the woes of  Nigerians, who are struggling to survive under very harsh law conditions,”the spokesperson said.

“The 24 hours’ drive  away consulate from Guangzhou is responsible for the continuous victimization and chasing around of many Nigerians for alleged illegal immigration paper work.
There are scenes where arrested victims are stripped half nude and bounded straight to detention centers for daring to transact businesses without valid permits.”

According to him, the cat and mouse relationship between Chinese security forces and Nigerians in Guangzhou  had resulted in  loss of lives of Nigerian young men, as was the case on  October 30, 2013 when  a middle aged Nigerian  was killed by a vehicle during a police raid on the streets of  the city.

Speaking also, Mr. Agbo Michael, who claimed to have legally lived in Guangzhou  for 10 years, stated that the “Nigerian government is responsible for the plight of Nigerians in China.”

He went on: “Could one imagine that the  Nigerian embassy authorities rarely come here and when you go to visit them in Beijing for any problem, the kind of treatment you get sometimes  makes you regret being a Nigerian?
“We are not asking the Nigerian government to bring their embassy in Beijing to Guangzhou.

Okonjo-Iweala

No! All we ask is a Nigerian consulate in Guangzhou in order to save us the stress of travelling all the way to Beijing just to receive consular services.

“I do not blame the Chinese, or have any grudge against their actions towards Nigerians here, because on occasions when they even try to contact our embassy for clarification on any problem involving a Nigerian, they are met with careless dispositions. “Sunday Vanguard gathered that the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, in one of his foreign investment drive meetings in China, visited Guangzhou and saw why a consulate should be established there.

The minister promised to  intervene.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, also visited Guangzhou to a rousing ovation, and, after assessment of Nigerians activities and the height of active participation of Nigerians in growing small scale businesses in China, which, in turn, boosts Nigeria-China economic and trade relations, she  made same promise which is yet to be fulfilled.

“Without recourse to the overbeaten Sino-Nigeria economic cooperation, there would be social disorder, mistrust and misplaced grudges that could possibly fuel the anger of both recipients of the media hyped economic cooperation to a burning hatred between Nigerians and Chinese, as Nigerian immigrants, who are trapped in the Nigerian government politics of vain promises to establish a consulate in the city of Guangzhou, would stop at nothing to ensure that the era of neglect and victimization, is eradicated,” lamented  another  Nigerian-China based businessman.

He said the unfulfilled promise of building a Nigerian consulate in Guangzhou would detach Nigerians from the gains of a growing Sino-Nigeria relations.
The Nigerian factor Sunday Vanguard gathered that a consul general, Mr. Anozie, was appointed for the proposed consulate.

He was said to have reported in China but there was no office for him to operate from, and unable to visit Guangzhou or even have a glimpse of the Nigerian community whose plight he had been sent to oversee, based on the fact that his visa status did not accord him the privilege to stay in China beyond a month, he returned to Nigeria, otherwise, he would have to face penalties.

A source said Nigerians in Guangzhou represent the bulk of China-Nigeria trade and that both countries cooperation in many instances are measured by the active participation of Nigerians SME operators in Guangzhou.
He said, “In all aspects, Nigerians in Guangzhou have organized trade unions and have been very active in building a community of Africans that creates a platform for every African immigrant in China”.

Reacting to the issue of lawlessness among Nigerians in Guangzhou, a visiting Nigerian businessman, Mr. Silvanus Ocherome, angrily, stated: “How do you control this mixed group of young people from travelling in anguish in a 24-hour train ride to an embassy office far away in Beijing?

“Those of them, who are privileged to travel by air, spend not less than three hours from Guangzhou to Beijing, just to receive consular services. We have also not added the cost of these travels.”
He explained that Nigerians who have a pressing need to return home due to heightened frustrations and anxieties are compelled to embark on  Herculean journeys to Beijing to queue for what is called Emergency Travel Certificate (TC).

“On many occasions young Nigerian parents are compelled by the Chinese unfriendly laws to produce international passport, within a short period of one month for their new born babies and, on this issue, the parents are subjected to travel to Beijing, under very severe weather conditions, just to procure the required documentation. This is outrageous.

“Besides, all these, the refusal to build a consulate in Guangzhou portrays Nigeria as a country that is governed by a bunch of  irresponsible and unreliable individuals who only are interested in enriching themselves at the expense of the governed.

“The immigration authorities in a prison on many occasions have had to send requests to the Nigerian embassy in Beijing to release a document known as TC to enable them facilitate release procedure for a detained Nigerian to no avail.

“On several occasions, a Nigerian would be detained for months at any the China prison underground, for alleged invalid travel documentation and the Nigerian embassy would feign ignorance. This is unpatriotic!”